More Federal Charges for Local President of “We Build The Wall”

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA – Brian G. Kolfage, of Miramar Beach, Florida, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for an additional crime related to the filing of his 2019 income taxes, announced Jason R. Coody, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida today. Kolfage, who faces a separate federal indictment out of the Southern District of New York for fraud and money laundering related offenses, now faces two distinct counts of filing a false tax return and one count of wire fraud related to the electronic filing of his tax return in Northern Florida.

The original indictment alleged that between January 2019 and July 2020, Kolfage engaged in a scheme to defraud the government in relation to his 2019 federal income tax returns. The charges alleged that Kolfage received hundreds of thousands of dollars from multiple organizations during 2019, including We Build the Wall, Inc., which were deposited into his personal bank account. Kolfage is alleged to have failed to report this income to the Internal Revenue Service.

The recently filed superseding indictment in the Northern District of Florida alleges a new count of Kolfage filing a false amended tax return in December 2020, a few months after the Southern District of New York indictment became public. 

Kolfage will be arraigned on this superseding indictment on July 21, 2021, at 11:00 am, at the United States Courthouse in Pensacola, Florida. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment.

The charges contained in the superseding indictment are only allegations. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David L. Goldberg and Lazaro P. Fields.   

The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation’s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General. To access public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida website. For more information about the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Florida, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/fln/index.html.